Arbor Planning Commission at its regular meeting Tuesday night, said commission chairwoman Bonnie Bona. The City Council still needs to pass the changes before they can go into effect.
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Downtown Ann Arbor zoning changes get an OK

Zoning changes to the downtown were approved by a 7-to-1 vote of the Ann Arbor Planning Commission at its regular meeting Tuesday night, said commission chairwoman Bonnie Bona.

The City Council still needs to pass the changes before they can go into effect.

The changes would subdivide the downtown into a D1 district, a core area of denser, mixed-use development, and a D2 district, a transition area between downtown and nearby residential neighborhoods. Those districts would be subdivided into eight "character" districts, with their own specific guidelines.

In part of the D1 district, the changes would increase how large a building can be in relation to the size of its lot. There would be no height restrictions. One exception would be the South University Avenue area, which was the focus of a lot of attention.

The Planning Commission on Tuesday decided it would have a height restriction of 120 feet, or roughly 10 to 12 stories.

In the D2 district, there would be a height restriction of 60 feet, or roughly five stories.

A city official will meet with neighborhood associations and merchant groups during the next several months. The changes could go before the City Council in November or December, said Wendy Rampson, the city systems planner working on the project.